Reaction

Isnt it the worst feeling in the world to feel as if you've been abandoned? Like when your parents left and forgot to tell you? Well, I wonder if that was how the Judahites felt when their city was destroyed and they were forced to leave their homelands. In Armstrongs book, she goes into great detail of the exodus of the Judahites and the destruction of their holy city of Jerusalem. I guess I never realized the vast history of the city....coming from the US, we think something thats only 2 or 300 years old is old, but this city of Jerusalem....its been around for thousands of years and that is the hardest part for me to comprehend. But the Judahites were thrown from that land, their city destroyed, and their connection to their God, the Temple of Yahweh, was destroyed and defiled. As Armstrong explains, back in that time, it wasnt as common to have mobile faith as it is today. In the time of Yahweh, people needed a concrete, tangible connection to their God...be it a temple, or statue, or something else of the sort. And when their temple was destroyed, along with their city, the people felt lost...and deserted. Until a preacher in exile had a vision. As armstrong pointed out, during times of hardship, people tend to look more towards myths then the traditional forms of faith, and I can understand why....Faith to most people is somewhat logical, more of a day to day thing. Myths are stories of people overcoming odds, stories that inspire...or just tell a good story, but myths arent necessarily based in the real word and I think thats why people tend to turn to them.. When life is hard, its easier to imagine something good in another world or time then something in the here and now; its harder to imagine a time of good fortune and love and harmony in a reality that doesnt necessarily shout those images from the rooftops.
But back to Armstrong, shes very in depth. Even with such a touchy subject, she still gives time to the historical analysis, and I like it. She goes into everything, the ottoman empires take over, then the romans....I knew about most of this from another book I read on the same subject, but Armstrong goes much deeper into the intricacies of the empires and the effects on the people.
Ok, so Im gonna be honest, Im losing steam on this, I know there is a lot of information in this book, but the thing Im stuck on is the sheer amount of oppression and assimilation these people have put up with. They've been exiled, beaten, murdered, praised....they've been so many different people, and yet they are still the same. How have some of their traditions lasted thousands of years? Even when they were forced to become someone else with someone elses beliefs and customs, the people of Jerusalem (some of them) stayed true to the God they believed in him, even when they thought he had abandoned them....thats pretty cool, I must say.